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Friday, 12 July 2013

Rachel Joyce - author event

By Maryom

We're only just back from holiday but couldn't miss the chance to see Rachel Joyce at Nottingham Waterstones last night - even booking our holiday to get back in time. This is the THIRD time we've seen her. First at Lowdham Festival, rather by accident when we went to see ML Stedman, and a previous event at Waterstones.
The previous events were both promoting her first book - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry which has proved to be immensely popular with readers. Last night she was back to talk about her new book - Perfect. which was launched last week. This story deals with the impact that a small incident in a very small time frame can have on the lives of all concerned.

The event started with Ms Joyce reading the prologue to Perfect - a good way to whet our appetites without giving away spoilers. Then she chatted with her publisher which she concluded with extracts from her very own diary from 1972 - when one of the threads of the story is set. She then answered questions from the audience. As Perfect is only one week old most of the questions focussed on Harold Fry but, rather surprisingly, many of the questions also reflected on Perfect.

Having read and immensely enjoyed Perfect, I was struck by the new ways I found myself interpreting it after hearing the author herself talking about it and placing emphasis on different aspects.

As is traditional at these events, the final part of the evening was the book signing, photographs and one on one chats with the author that make a book even more special. I even got my photo taken with her - but I look far too silly in it to share.